Monday, April 11, 2011

The original recipe is used for this ice cream is actually a recipe for white chocolate malt ice cream. I decided to use dark chocolate instead. For the malt powder, I chose the vanilla over the chocolate.

It is now day 2 and I still cannot taste any of the malt. Perhaps I should have used milk chocolate or used chocolate malt powder. The chocolate flavor has over powered the malt.

While not malty, I do find this to still be a tasty and rich chocolate ice cream. Also, I really liked the fact it set up fast. The ice cream ended up being a very hard, and creamy indulgence. I have had problems in the past with ice cream being too soft or becoming icy upon freezing. One bite of the dairy goodness made me forget the 90 degree heat that we had yesterday.

Anyhow, due to my issues above, I have posted the original recipe without my changes. However, I encourage you to experiment based on your tastes. What chocolate you use and if you use malt at all is up to you. In addition, you may want to put in other things such as 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, chopped toasted nuts, cookies or candy. Those additions would need to be stirred in right before the ice cream is transferred from the ice cream maker to another bowl for freezing. This recipe makes 1 1/2 quarts.

Pour the milk and cream into a large saucepan and place on medium high heat. Let mixture come to a boil and then remove. Set mixture aside.

Put the egg yolks in a large stainless steel bowl. Whisk the yolks until well blended. Then slowly add the hot milk mixture while continuing to whisk. This may take two people or you may need to spoon the hot milk into the egg yolks with a ladle and whisk after every spoonful.

Once all the milk is blended into the yolks, pour back in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring once in a while with a wooden spoon. The ice cream batter is done cooking when it does not drip off the spoon and leaves a coating on the back. This should take about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.

At this point, you will need to melt the chocolate. I did mine in a double boiler, but Wolfgang's instructions are to use a microwave, so I will include his method.

Take chocolate and place in microwaveable bowl. Cover with a paper towel and cook for 30 seconds in the microwave and stir. This microwave/stir process should be repeated more than once and up to 3 times. When you stir the mixture, you will be able to determine when it is all melted and smooth. Pour melted chocolate into ice cream batter and whisk until blended.

Pour 1 cup of ice cream batter from the saucepan into a heatproof bowl. Add the malted milk powder to the 1 cup of ice cream batter and stir until all is dissolved. Return the malt mixture back into the saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon.

Then drain the mixture through a sieve into another heatproof bowl. Once the saucepan is empty, grab a large bowl (big enough for the heatproof bowl to fit inside) and fill it with the ice. Then place the bowl of ice cream batter inside the ice bowl and let cool. After the mixture is completely cold, transfer to a ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions.